Often hailed as a YouTube star, cellist Joshua Roman is currently attracting attention for two very different videos.  Last month his segment from a fall 2008 concert broadcast outside a temple in Kyoto won the Professional Music Recording Award of Japan.  Oto Butai is one of Japan's biggest annual music events, televised nationally from a different temple each year.  Watch Roman's performance of Piazzolla's "Otono Porteno" in this award-winning video, or catch it in-flight on Japan Airlines.

On a different note, Roman was invited by photographer and Nikon spokesperson Chase Jarvis to collaborate on a video for the current Nikon Festival. Jarvis is one of the celebrity judges, along with Rainn Wilson of The Office and internet blogger Justine (iJustine) Ezarik, for Nikon's $100,000 contest, "Your day in 140 seconds or less".  Watch Roman playing Bach in this 140-second video. 

Always in good company, the young cellist turns 26 this month...on Beethoven's birthday.

For more information, visit JoshuaRoman.com or the Opus 3 Artists web site. 

"The only question with this artist is how high he might climb," wrote Pittsburgh Post-Gazette critic Andrew Druckenbrod of Stefan Jackiw's Pittsburgh Symphony debut last month when he played Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 with conductor Andris Nelsons. "He has a light but ravishing tone and a bow arm that made even the fastest runs flow like liquid." 

The 24-year-old violinist followed November concerto appearances in Connecticut, Oregon and Pennsylvania with a residency in Utica at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute that included appearances at local high schools. Look for Jackiw in Symphony magazine's January/February emerging artists issue, in an article on young soloists who are big on outreach.  

For more information on StefanJackiw, visit the Opus 3 Artists web site.